Daily Norseman
The Minnesota Vikings will begin training camp next week, beginning with rookies reporting on July 26th and veterans on July 28th. There will be a total of 13 practices open to fans, beginning with the August 1st practice and ending with the joint practices with the Ravens on August 19th and 20th. The first padded practice is August 3rd.
So what are some things to look for and camp battles that could play out? I’ve broken it down by position group.
One thing that I felt happened last year in training camp was that it was too much about just getting through it healthy and not so much about preparing as much as possible for the regular season. Kevin O’Connell was pretty casual walking around and making jokes during training camp last year, coming off a 14-3 season, Coach of the Year award, and contract extension. Justin Jefferson was given training camp off after a minor hamstring injury, and other veterans missed a lot of time. He didn’t play starters much in preseason games either. I didn’t write much about it at the time- I thought I may be making too much out of the more casual approach- and there were legitimate reasons to hold players out and not play them much, but it’s something I’m paying more attention to this year.
That more casual approach showed up in the first joint practice against the Patriots, who were a lot more physical and competitive as Mike Vrabel was looking to establish a culture as a new coach with a lot of young players who weren’t really expected to compete last season at that point. The Vikings did better the second day of joint practices, but the exercise did more to buoy the previously 4-13 Patriots than provide any momentum for the Vikings.
Looking back, we can appreciate how valuable setting a tone can be early on. The Patriots went to the Super Bowl and Mike Vrabel won Coach of the Year. The previous year, Kevin O’Connell took advantage of everyone writing off the Vikings as a six-win team to give them a chip on their shoulder and set a tone that helped propel them to the 14-win season.
So, given all that, it will be interesting to see what approach Kevin O’Connell takes toward training camp this year.
Of course all eyes will be on the competition between Kyler Murray and J.J. McCarthy for the starting quarterback job. Who gets first-team reps and how many? Who is more accurate? Who makes more mistakes? Who shows more flashes? How improved does McCarthy look compared to last year? Is Murray mastering the scheme or struggling to do so? How does the team react to each quarterback?
Beyond those elements, is the competition really close or not? Is there enough visual evidence to determine who’s winning? What if things get tense during practices and it becomes a distraction? Will the loser handle it gracefully?
Ultimately each quarterback...
